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I went to Golden Gate park today in SF and took some pictures on a very lovely day. But I'm still frustrated with the pics that I take because they don't seem sharp out of the camera. I'm almost always on aperture mode every time I take pictures. If anybody can give this newbie advice on taking better pictures outdoors with an 18-55 I would really appreciate it.

the first one i would have really liked but i think the pink in the right side of the background got in the way of making it a nice photo. also wondering if you think the DOF was too shallow, i think it woulda been better if the base of the flower was more in focus ?? bloody hard to get the right focal point on macros, much tougher than i thought.

All the pictures are getting lost in this thread. I can't believe I just saw these. LOL I really like the second one! I agree about the distracting background of the first one and think a bit more DOF would look better, but it's still cool.

"Saturate yourself with your subject and the camera will all but take you by the hand." ~ Margaret Bourke-White

I went to Golden Gate park today in SF and took some pictures on a very lovely day. But I'm still frustrated with the pics that I take because they don't seem sharp out of the camera. I'm almost always on aperture mode every time I take pictures. If anybody can give this newbie advice on taking better pictures outdoors with an 18-55 I would really appreciate it.

Anyways here is one I took but still had to enhance it through PP.

18mm
1/800
F4
ISO 200

I have the same lens, and I've found that shooting at around F8-F11 (maybe a little higher number, even) yields the sharpest results. Especially on such a sunny day, when you're back a ways from your subject, and you want the whole picture to be in focus, you can definitely use a smaller aperture. Hope that helps.

P.S. Using a lens hood would remove the sun's glare from the shot. Sometimes I even just hold my hand up to shade the lens.
Double P.S. There's something wrong with that bench???

Originally Posted by spra4321

Sorry I'm not sharing a picture today, but I have a question about the BULB MODE that was talked about in earlier threads...

What is the difference between using the rubber band/shutter release and just setting the shutter speed to several minutes?

My D50's longest "programmed (?)" shutter speed is 30 seconds. If it came with longer shutter speeds, I would use them! If only ...

One benefit of using the remote shutter release is that you can click the shutter without disturbing the camera. That helps keep the picture sharp.

i think i got em this time. i;m pretty happy with these. only took me about 50 shots. i can't help feeling slightly...ahhh...girly taking photos of flowers for so long.

btw: i switched to colour mode III and this made a massive difference. wtf ?? i shoot in IIIa cos i think its the default, but i changed it for whatever reason and the resulting difference is significant. if anyone is intererested i think i still have the RAW files and i can show a comparison.